[dunnevens]

I came up with similar thoughts after losing someone I loved. Helped immensely to think of time as a dimension. Even though I'm trapped on a one way course, those previous moments still exist. Even though the person I loved is dead and I'll never talk to her again, those moments of her life will always exist. As far as I know, nothing can ever erase it.

There will always be a place in the universe where she's alive and happy. A place that I'll probably never be able to visit but still is immensely comforting knowing it exists.

I guess that's my version of a secular afterlife. Not entirely comforting as all the moments of suffering still exist too, somewhere. But still, it means there's a permanence to even the most impermanent things.

[herdcall]

This (that time is a dimension) is as I understand what most physicists believe today and constitutes the so-called eternalism (or "block universe") philosophy of time. According to this view, past/present/future are our (human) terms to explain what is already laid out and we're simply moving along the time access just like we move along in space (though of course only in direction).

I've become a big believer in this view. A valuable upshot of embracing eternalism is that it makes it much easier not to regret the past or worry about the future, though some believe it encourages risky behavior.

[uh_uh]

I don't think most physicists subscribe to the view that things are laid out already. I think most believe that physics is non-deterministic due to QM. Other schools of thoughts like superdeterminism does believe what you're saying but I think this is a minority view (albeit advocated by some very high profile physicists).

What is not clear to me however is whether a block universe view can still be correct even if non-determinism is true.